Alan Bennett says 'Boycott Waterstone's and Amazon'

[Guest tv tanned]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1823395,00.html

[Guest DustyDeviada]

I know what he's saying, and it's fine in principle, but are people really going to pay double in some cases just to keep their independent bookshop/record shop/dvd retailer etc in business.

Doubt it.

[Guest tv tanned]

I buy most of my books and albums second hand from charity shops or places like Books and Beans anyway.

Like any major retail outlet, places like Waterstone's and Amazon tend to aggressively push 'loss leaders' and you tend to find when you scratch beneath the shiny surface that the price differences on the whole are not as massive as they are made out to be.

Equally, they are also in collusion with most distributors and publishers, and thus can secure better deals for mass purchases.

Independent stores are often better in terms of knowledge and in terms of being able to get hold of rare titles.

[jester1470]

Surely the real problem is with the publishers themselves who offer such mass discounts to certain retaillers, not in the retaillers themselves. The worst thing for the independent bookstore was the abolition of the Net Book Agreement.

For anyone Interested the Net Book Agreement was formerly administered by The Publishers Association whereby publishers in the UK were able to dictate the minimum price at which their titles were sold by bookshops; abandoned by publishers in 1995 and finally made illegal by the Restrictive Practices Court in 1997.

Not the best for consumers but certainly kept a fairer playing field.

Cheers

Stuart

[lepeep]

I was out looking for "rama II" (arthur C clarke) the other day, the amount of second hand book shops on charring cross, is frightening...and noone had it...I headed straight for waterstones, bingo, one copy, brand new 7 quid.

survival of the fittest...

[Guest tv tanned]

I was out looking for "rama II" (arthur C clarke) the other day' date=' the amount of second hand book shops on charring cross, is frightening...and noone had it...I headed straight for waterstones, bingo, one copy, brand new 7 quid.

survival of the fittest...[/quote']

aye, but natural selection is based on the idea that you start from the same point is it not?

[lepeep]

so no alien intervention?

he he...remember, I am reading Rama!

[Guest DustyDeviada]

Like any major retail outlet' date=' places like Waterstone's and Amazon tend to aggressively push 'loss leaders' and you tend to find when you scratch beneath the shiny surface that the price differences on the whole are not as massive as they are made out to be.

[/quote']

Yep, back catalogue titles tend to be full price. But you can't beat the bigger outlets for new releases.

As I mentioned in the other thread, Asda are selling the new paperback version of the Bob dylan autobiography for 3.73, which is pretty amazing. Most magazines are around 3.50 nowadays.

[jester1470]

aye' date=' but natural selection is based on the idea that you start from the same point is it not?[/quote']

And once upon a time Waterstones was atthe same place as the local bookshop...

So they started from the same place

Cheers

Stuart

[Guest tv tanned]

so more fool the other independent local bookshops for failing to have imperialist designs?

[lepeep]

so more fool the other independent local bookshops for failing to have imperialist designs?

err....not sure what that means...

so what you are saying is...Waterstones started out, to do nothing but flood the nation with it's stores ?

ah..

i'd have thought they would have started out saying "hey, lets sell books".

year after year, they get bigger (because of their nice, frienly, helpful stores...) and suddenly, "don't shop there, they are imperialists"...

mcdonalds, aye, not bookshops.

if there was a monopoly, surely they would have been sniffed out and stopped by now ? (?)...

it's the classic brittish "fight the successful, care for the downtrodden".

and I am ont sure if I agree with either side.

if anything, a small bookshop shouldn't have to worry about waterstones, if it's got a specialist market OR offers an amazing SERVICE...but, that's economics, and I know nothing about that....so I'll shut up.

[Stripey]

Sounds a bit daft to me. I'm all for boycotting supermarkets in favour of local suppliers like butchers and fishmongers, because even though it can be more expensive, the goods are generally of a better quality. But a book is a book regardless of who you buy it from...

[Chris]

if there was a monopoly' date=' surely they would have been sniffed out and stopped by now ? (?)...

[/quote']

there is talk of reporting them to the monopolies commission as once Waterstones buy Ottakers they will have a monopoly on bookselling, especially in Scotland. And there was a motion to this effect in the Scottish Parliament recently:

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:4r5wAWwh_oAJ:www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/businessBulletin/bb-05/bb-09-22f.htm+waterstones+monopoly+scotland&hl=en

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=2093722005

[RF Scott]

Sounds a bit daft to me. I'm all for boycotting supermarkets in favour of local suppliers like butchers and fishmongers' date=' because even though it can be more expensive, the goods are generally of a better quality. But a book is a book regardless of who you buy it from...[/quote']

exactly.

A good place to buy books is Amazon marketplace sellers (same with cds actually), brand new condition for little money

[framheim]

yea i'm all for supporting local businesses and stuff but to some extent they need to find a niche in the market to survive. they have to adapt and offer things the big chains and supermarkets can't offer such as books and beans does it's traditional funcy pieces and second hand books, seems to be doing a roaring trade as well no matter how many paperbacks i buy from ottakers. also ottakers staff are friendly and helpful which no doubt helps their business. beyond words in edinburgh is doing so well it's got two shops now both selling a great range of photography books and nothing else(they also sell online, check em out).

supermarkets cater solely for those after the bestsellers and often they're trashy pieces of shit anyway.

[Stripey]

books and beans

I went in there the other day out of curiosity, walked round and left without looking at any books because they put the fucking coffee tables right infront of the bookshelves! You can't even get close! Shame really because second-hand books are cool, especially really old ones. They seemed to mostly have crime/thriller books and uni texts anyway, unfortunately...